مشغول - Busy

Majhgul - Busy

Life is busy. You're probably all busy too. Now you know how to describe it in Arabic! Just say "ana majhgul" ("majhgulA" if you're a woman) and though people might think you crazy, yo, you'd make perfect sense to the 280 million native speakers of Arabic in the world. (That number's the result of some recent wikipedia time-wasting/justifying-my-decision-to-study-Arabic sessions. Noooot sure why I do that to myself and then complain that I have too much homework to be doing.)

I have a half-written post about embarrassing moments (ooh oh oh so many), a few thoughts scrawled down about insane ideas concerning exercise and nutrition in Egypt, a whole list of strange and sometimes terrifying experiences that have happened in my elevator, an angrily scribbled paragraph about the bewildering issue of classicism here, and some other bits here and there..... but those posts will need to wait for March to pass, with its silly amount of projects, essays, and internship assignments that draw my writing attention away. And really today I just want to put up some pictures of the two past weekends. And they've been two very contrasting weekends indeed. 

Last weekend, several of us travelled to Fayoum, a rural, agricultural area about 2 hours outside of Cairo. We walked through crops and fields at sunset, stopping for donkeys and buffalo to pass, visited a deserted temple, got sand in our hair, picknicked at some man-made waterfalls in the middle of the desert, and eavesdropped on French tourists at our "eco-lodge." (In Egypt, I'm not sure what the difference is between an eco-lodge and a regular hotel, because the eco-lodge had more comfortable and reliable access to hot water, toilet paper, electricity, and food than some of the hotels I've stayed in, but whatever, ma'alesh, it was a beautiful place that oozed warmth and exuded calm.) We also got yelled at (and learned some new, um, slang) for being Americans at a rest stop but that's a subject for a different sort of blog post entirely.

Aaaand just these past couple of days, some of us travelled to Cairo for 4th annual Cairo Jazz Festival. We stayed in a breezy, wooden-floored, welcoming downtown hostel, explored leafy, quiet Zamalek during the day, ate REAL tofu flavored with lemongrass and ginger at a Thai restaurant, listened to a number of truly talented jazz musicians while sipping cups of 1-guinea tea, and watched an excellent film on the underground music scene in Alexandria, with the director in attendance. We all weren't sure we'd ever experienced this liberal side of Alexandria the film portrayed, but it was a good film nonetheless, and fun to see our temporary home portrayed with such loving cinematic panache.

The first weekend was mostly relaxing though still managed to prompt introspective questioning and stressed-out "what am I doing here anyway?" thought sessions, amidst scrambling to finish homework and assignments in every spare moment en route and in Fayoum. The second weekend was invigorating and refreshing and encouraging, while still set in often-chaotic Cairo. Through the second weekend, God answered some of the "what am I doing here anyway?" murmurs in my brain. He is good, Arabic is good, and lazy hostel mornings with a group of 8 of your friends can be a good, sweet medicine for stress.

Pictures are good too. Enough rambling.

Dinner in Fayoum

Fayoum

A temple, and Ryan. (Confession: I don't remember the name of the temple. We'll call it Ryan's temple.) 

desert dog

desert birds

The desert's a GREAT place for some... 

...waterfalls?

This goat had flair, I tell you. 

A tenacious sunflower that survived from last season.

Sunset yes yes yes

Mama camel and baby camel

Camel family on their way to... Dream park! (so we told ourselves :(:(:( )

Eco-lodge

 

 And now for Cairo!

Katie and I, immediately after finding TRUE cupcakes. This peanut butter masterpiece rivaled anything I've eaten an an American bakery. And Egyptians don't even LIKE peanut butter!

An oft-seen symbol of Christian/Muslim solidarity

One of the better afternoons I've had in a while, y'all.

View from the Zamalek festival grounds.

Late-night dinner at our favorite yemeni restaurant after the festival.

..aaaand, half a gazebo. Why? Who knows.

And finally, a good song from the film we watched, Microphone, with many, many shots of Alexandria in the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up-a-00k4u4